Scaling Strategies for Success: Leveraging Peer Groups for Business Growth with Kevin Dell'Oro

Hello and welcome to Mastermind Mastery, the podcast for professionals who want to create and run successful peer advisory councils, or as we call them, PACs for short, or they're also known as peer groups or business mastermind groups. I'm your host, Tina Corner Stolz, founder of Elixir Council, where I've been in the industry running groups since 2005 and now help those like you with education, certification, and support wanting to do the same. At one time, I ran 10 groups, nearly 100 members, and sold my groups For a Good Multiple and recently released my second book, Your Seat at the Table: How to Create and Run Your Own Peer Advisory Councils, published by Forbes and grateful to you that it's an Amazon bestseller. I invite you to join each week where we share strategies and techniques to successfully launch and become a master of running your PACTs. You'll hear insights, perspectives, dos and don'ts, learn from my and my guests' mistakes, successes, and get the inside track to key takeaways. Each time we have a guest, we'll be having a bit of fun. So are you ready? Let's get going and dive into today's episode.

So welcome everyone to another episode of Mastermind Mastery. I'm your host, Tina Corner Stolz, and we have a guest today, Kevin Del Orio. And what you're going to learn from Kevin today on why you want to continue listening is this man does a lot. A lot of other stuff. And when you are that person that you do this and that and this and that, how does peer groups actually help you leverage what you're already doing? In addition to like, why do a bunch of peer groups? And maybe that's not all you do and you do other things. So I'm excited to have Kevin. Kevin is a licensed partner of Alex Council. He's one of our most successful and long standing licensed partners. So it's long overdue to have him as a guest on the show today. So welcome, Kevin.

Thank you.

Excellent. Um, so what everybody's going to learn a little bit today, and I want you to go over a little bit about your background and all the stuff that you do, is kind of some of the secrets to success when you're juggling lots of priorities, um, but also the benefit when they're all aligned how it can leverage and help all of them even elevate and, right, be more successful. The concept of 1 1 3 or 4, etc., right? And we have not talked about this on the show yet. So I'm, I'm excited for you to share your thoughts and your insights with everybody. So it'd be a great place to start is first tell them, where are you?

I live in Annapolis, Maryland.

Yes. Love Annapolis. If anybody hasn't been, they need to go. This commissioning week is coming up next week.

Coming up week after next.

Yeah. Yeah. So, that's even an awesome time to be in Annapolis.

Yes.

Very patriotic with all the Navy people running around. And so, as we start, educate the audience a little bit about all the things you do. And then when you decided, enter into the space of creating and running PACs, so peer advisory councils, like what caused you to decide to do that? And then we'll get in a little bit of like what you've seen as the benefits that have come from it. So start us out with what are, what's all that stuff that you do?

Yeah, well, thank you. So, you know, I went to business school and one of the things they teach you at business school is focus, focus on one thing and do it as well as you can. And so I was not the best business school student, clearly. Early and may even have some professional ADD. I don't know. But I do. So obviously I run Elix Council. So I have, I have 2 Elix Council or 3 Elix Councils, excuse me, that I currently run and looking to add a senior leader group. So that'll be a 4th group. I do a bit of consulting more on the small, medium business side of things, really focused on supporting business owners and their leadership teams on driving operational execution and growth. I also, I also support— I have a strategy consulting firm that I started and sold in 2020, and I support that firm more with back office operations. In 2018, I bought a Lawn Doctor franchise, and I actually own 11 franchises right now. We started with 5 and then we added 6 in 2021. That business is, you know, one of those businesses where after being in strategy consulting for 20-something years, I said, can I buy a business and grow a business? And was, was drawn to this particular business for a variety of reasons. And now I have a really good team that runs that business. And then, and then lastly, I do and help a couple of other consulting firms on a variety of work that they do for their clients. So it's more of a support for them. So that's kind of the, that's the quick synapse of, of the different businesses.

So I suspect our listeners are tired because they've just heard all this stuff that you do. And on top of the fact you are a dad, how many kids at what age?

I have 3 kids, uh, 17, 13, and 11. Um, so one going off to college next year, one going to high school, and one going to 7th grade, uh, next year.

Yes. And I also think you sort of— you left out something about a building.

Oh, yes. Oh, yeah, right. In 2022, we bought a commercial building, have some tenants. One of them is the Lawn Doctor franchise and have a few other tenants as well. So, and I do count it as a business because not just because it produces income, but because it has all of the problems that a business has, right? Like figuring things out, managing people, etc. So Yes, that is another business.

Exactly. And so here you are, you doing all of those things, and now you have 3 groups looking at 4. Why? Yeah, so this is why for our listeners to hear is like, how does this guy tie this together?

Right, right. It's a really good question. And I'll tell you, one, professionally, I am like way more happier, way happier, excuse me, than I was maybe 5 or 6 years ago. And candidly, my strategy consulting firm has done really, really well. My practice didn't do as well as I would have liked. And it's one of those situations where I wasn't really feeling successful and love the firm, still support the firm, but it just wasn't— I was kind of tired working for Fortune 500 companies. So, so the first is that I'm really happy and love it. The second is I actually have a lot more flexibility than it sounds. I think I work hard, but I'm not working 40, 50 hours a week, right? I'm working less, just to be clear, because sometimes business owners assume the answer to that— if I say not 40 or 50, they mean— they think I mean 60, and it's not that. Um, and so I'm able to balance a lot of different things. The, you know, some people have pondered, like, that I'm successful at juggling lots of things, and that's not true actually. I, I fail kind of daily on that front, but But the common denominator is it makes me really happy and I love doing it. So it really— I know it's cliché, but it really doesn't feel like work. It feels like I'm solving problems and, and that's what I like to do. The common denominator across all of it is that I genuinely feel like I'm helping people, you know, whether it's helping a business owner grow so they can add more employees or so that they can have, you know, make more money out of the business, or whether it's, you know, helping a member in the Alex Council solve problems or for my lawn care business, whether it's it's about developing, you know, my general manager, office manager, or sales manager, developing other leaders in the business so that they, you know, can take on more responsibilities. All of it is around how do I help people. And I believe that my gifts probably lie in business more than anything else. Um, and so I understand business and I have a decent background to, to help people. And so that's where I choose to kind of, you know, play and, and bring, bring value.

Excellent. And I know that you and I have talked about, like, when you're moderating your monthly meetings, you yourself have takeaways, right, in doing those that help you with the other things you're doing. So can you share that with our listeners? Like, what does that mean and what's happening?

Yeah, no, it is such a benefit. The groups that I have are really great groups and I learn from them every time we meet. I learn from the individual members every time we meet. And it's a little unfair because they're paying me to lead a group, but I get so much benefit for them. I'm just going to summarize it in a story. When I first started doing LX Councils, I would come back to my GM and would, you know, give him 5 or 6 different things of new ideas of things we should do that I learned from, you know, from a roofing company or from a marketing agency or, you know, from a nonprofit where they're just doing things differently than we are. And, and it's an opportunity for, for us to establish growth. And after probably the, you know, 3 or 4, maybe 5 months of this, he kind of finally came in and said, hey, look, you're the owner. So every time you tell me you have an idea, I feel like you want me to go execute on it, and I just can't do all of this stuff, right? And it was, it was actually another learning for me that, you know, my, my members have that same issue, which is we all get so excited with business ideas. But we've brought back, you know, everything from, you know, I hadn't heard of EOS and now our lawn care company runs on EOS and does a really phenomenal job of it and self-implements. Right. And to how do we deal with, you know, problem employees that frankly we were, we were the ones not addressing, you know, situations and not having radical candor, which is, which is one of the topics that we had in our, in our groups, which was recommendation from one of the members, right? So I'm learning all those kinds of things. I'm better about which ones do we implement at the business. But absolutely every day comes with business tactical or strategic ideas from my groups that I then implement into, into that business as well as, you know, all of the other businesses.

Frankly, that makes me think of two things. One, what do you think the impact is on your CEO groups, the members, their mindset about the fact that you have Lawn Doctor franchises and a building you manage and consulting you do, and then you do these groups? Like, what do you think they think about it and any benefits to them about it?

For sure. I think, um, I'm, I'm in a discussion with a potential member, and, and that member went to another group, and, um, and I don't know which group it is or anything like that, not that it matters, but what they said was the, the moderator The operator was, was actually talking a lot more about her business than he would have expected. Right. And so, and I got that feedback from one of my members. I said, am I doing that? And they said, absolutely not. What you bring is, you know, I have both the Fortune 500 experience of consulting, I have working with small, medium businesses, and I own a reasonably sized business where I can bring, you know, my own experiences. And there are times when I'm really a part of the conversation, more asking questions and things like that. That they value. And also when we meet once a month, quarterly, one-on-one, it is even more important. They actually ask me questions about my business and how I handle certain things, knowing that I've had these experiences. And I think, I think that that matters. And I like to say two things that matter in a, in a, in a group. One is the people and the members you're going to get value from. And two is the moderator does, does matter. And so I think I've done well. I'm not for everybody, but the people, my members have reacted well and value my personal experiences. Yes.

I believe that it does matter, your experiences. It's not like you're consulting in the meeting. But the point is, you know what questions to ask and prompt because you are actually sitting in the seat that they are in as well. Exactly. Currently. So the second thing is, how has that You touched on it a little bit with your story about how you've gone back to your GM and it's like, oh my God, yes, we need to do this, that kind of thing. But how— or is there any other, um, things that you've experienced that have leveraged the fact that you're running these CEO groups that have helped you in business? Okay.

Yeah, so, well, I mean, the most obvious is what's I'm sure other moderators experience this, but what's really valuable at the end of the day is we have deeper relationships where we're all trying to help each other. And that's the beauty of the group. If you have the right people in the group, then everybody has abundance mentality, everybody wants to help. And so the first thing I would say is, you know, I have a network of individuals that are really becoming friends and I can lean on them and ask them questions that I, you know, that I, that I need for my business. Very easy example. In the lawn doc— for some first time, knock on wood— lawn doctor, we had a, we had an accident. We, one of the technicians wrecked a vehicle. I had no operating procedure for what to do. I didn't even know what to do myself. Right. So I was kind of flying blind. I have, I have two members that both have fleets of vehicles and they both sent me their standard operating procedures within a day. And then we kind of merged them together. And now, you know, now we have an operating procedure, right? So, so So it's things like that, that again, it's a tactical example, but there's also strategic examples where I can call, you know, the head of our financial services business and member and ask real complex tax or related financial questions. And so, so I think that's, that's one piece. The other piece is the network itself, right? So there's, there's the value of the— especially because I have different groups, I have, you know, I have a network that brings value to my members. And I think that's certainly one way where I've benefited as being a leader.

Yes. And that example, that story you told about the operating machine, I mean, if you think about it, how much time did that save you? Right? You didn't have to create them. You didn't have to pay for it per se.

Right. Well, not just that, but it was going to be one of those things that falls on the owner. So, there was going to be a huge time suck. You know, I wouldn't have even known where to start. Like, standard operating procedures sound great, but like, where do you start? And so having that value was immense and has certainly helped us.

They've already figured it out because they already know what works, what doesn't, what to be sure it's in there. You don't need to have this in there, those types of things, right?

And each of them have like, you know, one of the guys was like, wait, this is your first accident in 6 years that you've owned the business? He's like, I have 1 or 2 major ones a year. I was like, oh my. So, you know, so he's gone through it and it's insurance approved and all that. So it's those kinds of things that you just don't even, you can't really put a number or a time on. You just know that like your life is made easier because of your network.

Absolutely. So with the other piece, which is the fact that you have multiple groups.

Yeah.

Not just one. There are advantages to scaling. Right. And having more than one. So can you talk to the listeners a little bit about what you have found are the benefits of having more than one group?

Yeah, sure.

And by the way, will you let them know in-person, virtual? We didn't do that, so that would be helpful.

Oh, yes. Sorry. All three are in-person. One is here in Annapolis. I have one in Tyson's Corner, which is outside of Washington, D.C., and then I have one in Connecticut, which Sounds crazy. I co-lead that with my sister, which is a great opportunity to spend time and be with her and, you know, kind of grow the business there. But also my parents are there, so I get to see them once a month. So that's the, that's the link for all those with questions. All 3 of those are in person. My senior leader group, which is not launched yet but is beginning to get ready to launch, hopefully will be once a quarter in person. The other 2 for that quarter will be virtual.

Yes.

So now it sounds like a lot. What I found is from a scale perspective, first and foremost, I'll talk to the network because I really believe the exposure to more business owners makes me better in each meeting. Right. The issues that we talk about, the things that are said in one meeting are different than another meeting. And I get to bring that content and it's highly valued. Right. So, you know, from again, from easy tactical examples of how people manage people and bring up managers to strategic, strategic decisions around growth geographically. And, you know, it's just more commentary and more war stories, if you will, that brings value to the groups. Right. Because all we're trying to do is create thoughts and questions to have people drive their business forward. So that's— so network has been by far number one. And the scale of that is not when I have twice the amount of, of, of business owners, it's not twice the value. It's— it is again, 3 times the value. The, the second is time. So when I— having 2 groups and 3 groups, I'm able to create 3 agendas. They're not always the same, but I'm able to create 3 agendas, not in 3 times the time, but in 1.25 times the time. So it is incremental on my time to manage it. Certainly travel and the meetings themselves are, you know, that is a, that's obviously a fixed variable and you can't do anything about that. But from a scale perspective, my preparation is lower, you know, proportionally.

Right.

Obviously compensation goes up significantly when you, when you have 3 groups. And that's, you know, that, that, that is meaningful when you're looking at 3 groups. Then there's the other aspect, which is just general— what I talked about, you know, the networking effect for me, certainly, but actually the networking effect for everybody. So I have referrals, I have, hey, I know this owner has the same issue, let me connect you with him or her because they're in my group, and, and you guys can find time to talk. And, and that's like, that's value to the individual group, right? So, so I think about those types of things, um, but I have Actually, when I got into this, I said I was going to do one group, maybe a second group. I have three. I'm about to add a fourth. And, you know, there are days I could say I could do more. There are some days where I probably should do less, but I— and I do them, I do them right in a row, all in one week. So it's a hell week of sorts, but it's like, it's like having a client deliverable. It's like, game on, you know, you got to be ready. You have 3 weeks to prepare and get all that content ready. So So, um, that's what I do.

It's your week of being in the, in the zone of the period, right? And then you can move on and do other stuff and travel or whatever you want to do, right?

Exactly. Yeah. I mean, from a work-life flexibility, um, yeah, it's, it's great because when I do quarterlies, I can do them over the, you know, over video. Most of mine are over video. So it's really, um, I have 3 weeks in a, in a, in a month where I can pretty much do whatever I Yeah.

And so I hope everybody's listening to the flexibility of being in control of your time, right? Freedom. And it drives additional revenue. And one of the other things I would think it would leverage is that when you have more than one group, you kind of have a home for anybody you talk to a lot of times, right? They might not be a right fit over here, but they would be over here. And then, and I know you and I share this thought, which is A lot of times a member doesn't want to refer you to someone to have them in their group.

Yeah, exactly.

They're like, I don't want them in mine, but can be somewhere else, right?

Yep, exactly.

So then, yeah, for that referral that otherwise you would never have.

That's correct. Yep, absolutely. And likewise, the senior leader group, frankly, the reason why I'm doing it is two of the members requested that I do it. They're like, we want them in your group exposed to you. Will you put together a senior leader group? And so I've actually been a little bit slower on that because I've really asked myself, do I want to be doing that? But, but I more and more I look into it, I really do. And I want that exposure. And I think that'll bring another level of value to the CEOs where I have a senior leader group that's saying, my, this person is nuts. Like, I don't know how to like, you know, manage it. And, and now I could see both sides of the story. And I think that brings a level of value. And that's, that's genuinely part of the reason why I why I'm, why I'm doing it, um, is because I think it will bring more value to the, to the members, and because two members who I love dearly asked that I do this.

So yeah, no pressure, peer pressure from them.

Exactly. I, I'm not, I'm not good at saying no, you may have gathered.

So yes, yes, I like that though. Um, with us coming to the end here and a question that I always like to ask our guests is what one piece of advice would you give listeners? And maybe it's along the lines of they're thinking about running more than one group, or it could just be anything at all. And your experience of doing this as many years that you have been doing it. So what would, what would you like to share of your wisdom with our listeners today?

Yeah, so, um, that's a good one. I want to talk, uh, more even above, um, councils or peer councils or what have you, but, but it's directly related, which is one, I really think— I know this is easier said than done— you get— you have to do it for the right reasons. So part of my story has its church involved in a bishop who said, you know, you can give you can give back using your strengths, right? It doesn't have to be in the church. And, and so I think about that and my values are very clearly helping, helping others. And so I say that because what I didn't talk about is the financial benefits, which are, which are significant in running this model. So there's a work-life flexibility and there's significant financial benefits. That is genuinely why— not why I do it. In fact, You know, in a worst practice, I had a group for, for 5 months. I didn't charge them at all because I wanted to make sure it was the right fit for them. And I was— I just didn't charge them. So, so it wasn't about the money really. It was for me, it was about— it was about giving back, bringing the insights and experience I have and helping others and genuinely. And so, you know, that's the first thing I think that's really important is to be clear about your values and to do it for the right reasons. If you get into this business for money, I can assure you it will not be satisfying and you— it will be known. And I think to some degree my old consulting firm taught me that towards the end, the money was always good, but I wasn't passionate about it and it reflected in my performance, frankly. The second thing I would say, and I say this to anybody starting a business or an endeavor, is How are you going to make money? Like, how are you going to make sales? Meaning business development is a lot harder. And if you think you have 20, 30 business owners that are friends of yours and they're all going to want to join your group, I just tell you, you won't even fill a group. It just won't happen. And so the question is, is how are you going to get outside of your core network to go and do business development? And that might be for you can for any business. It's just an important question because there's always a technical aptitude that I find that people have. And again, especially in professional services, whether it's law firms or consulting firms or peer councils, there's a technical capability and smartness to people who wanna do this. But the question is, is can they sell? And I think you just have to be honest with yourself because that's where the failure's gonna come from.

It's exactly right. It starts there. You have to be able to sell. It's the unique skill set of being able to sell and then a separate skill set of moderating the group.

Yeah, for sure. Absolutely.

Yep. Well, excellent. So Kevin, thank you for joining. Lots of great insight for our audience today. Um, takeaways from just, you know, when you do other things besides running groups, that it can be leveraged and help you even be better at that, vice versa. Um, the, the, you know, keys of, of scaling from the standpoint of doing multiple groups and how you can leverage that and, um, with referrals and just connections and serving more. Um, so thank you for joining today.

Thank you for having me.

Appreciate it. And then if people want to get in contact with you, what's the best way for them to do that?

Uh, the best way is probably LinkedIn. Uh, I'm on LinkedIn, Kevin Dell'Oro. It's spelled D-E-L-L-'O-R-O. Uh, and that's probably the best way. My contact information is there. You can reach out to me, uh, cell phone, email, all of that, uh, goes through LinkedIn.

So excellent.

I welcome I welcome any and all conversations.

Wonderful. So again, thank you. And to all of you out there, thank you for listening to another episode today. And until next week, we'll make it happen.

Hey, moderators of peer groups, thank you for listening to today's episode. To get access to show notes and exclusive content and resources, go to Tina Corner Stolz. Cornerstolz.com or www.alexcounsel.com where you can also become part of our online exclusive community, attend our academy where there are over 13 modules of how to create and run a successful peer advisory group, mastermind group, as well as free resources, white papers, checklists, and more. And you can even contact contact me there as well. If this episode resonates with you and you know someone who can also benefit from listening, please share with them by taking a screenshot or post it on your social media. I also love reviews and appreciate hearing from all of you, all of you who are doing this wonderful work of running peer groups. Please tune in next week for the next episode of Mastermind Mastery, and I will close by sharing something my mentor did after ensure every learning moment with someone he connected with. He reached into his pocket and he shared a shiny pebble with anyone he passed knowledge to and asked them to forward that pebble knowledge on. Now I encourage you to pass on a pebble, the takeaways you learned today, to either your existing groups or fellow peers. Now go make it happen.